A separate tent will house a bar serving fairly-traded beer from the Workers Beer Company (happy hour is 6pm-8pm), but if you fancy something rather more exotic, there are radical cocktails available with names like Che Guevara and Lefthook.

Sorry, what decade are we living in? Che Guevara cocktails? I’m sure there will be one with strawberry and vodka called ‘Red Revolution’, and can you guess what ingredients you need to make a ‘Gorgeous George’? And what is fairly-traded beer? Its one pound and forty pence a pint at my working mens club which I find very fair – I bet they can’t beat that at Glastonbury and I doubt they will have pork scratchings either.

: Harry also welcomes a new blogmate, Marcus, who defines his liberalism. I’m still looking for a label for this post-9.11, pro-war, unPC, rhetoricless liberalism to which I adhere.

Like Harry my political roots are in the left though this does not stop me from despairing at the recent sheep-like state of thinking on the left which I intend to challenge on this site where neccessary…. At the risk of stating the obvious I consider the two most important events in recent political history are the collapse of the socialist regimes in Europe and the 9/11 attacks on the US.

Where the fall-out from these two events will lead us is still not clear. When asked, in the 1950’s about the political consequences of the French Revolution, Zhou en Lai the Chinese Prime Minister said “It’s too early to tell”. I have some sympathy for his position but don’t believe we have the luxury of such a delayed response. What I do know is that sizable sections of the British Left are acting as if neither event happened. This has to change or the Left will go the way of the great auk.

There is a brewer in the Pacific Northwest called Red Hook. Probably some sleeper cell brewery eh?
Make one hell of a stout.

http://stageleft.crow.ws stageleft

rhetoricless liberalism to which I adhere.
Rhetoricless ?? I think not.

http://hoomanm.blogspot.com hooman

jeff,
one of the things the left (or liberals in genral for that matter) should change is the way it talks to people. I’d written in my weblog before:
Conservatives talk more simply without leaving any guilty feeling in listener. A typical liberal answer to why there are poor people: “It is a complicated thing. Social failures combined with … blah, blah, blah”, whereas a typical conservative answer is “They are lazy”, without making you feel partially responsible. A typical liberal answer to how to tackle world’s problems: ” It is complicated. Diplomacy through constructive engagement … blah, blah, blah”, whereas a typical conservative answer would be “It is them against us. We have to kick their ass”, without making you feel partially responsible.
the left is out of touch.

John Irving

stageleft: Obviously.

http://www.deanesmay.com Dean Esmay

Hooman says:Social failures combined with … blah, blah, blah”, whereas a typical conservative answer is “They are lazy”, without making you feel partially responsible.
Gaaaah!!!
Jesus, there are so many conservatives who say the exact opposite of that it’s not even funny.
The real problem is that the left doesn’t even try to understand the Right’s arguments anymore. They are content to rely on cheap stereotypes like this.
You can’t listen to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and think that makes you an expert on the so-called “conservatives.” If you think otherwise, you’ve already lost half the battle.
You want real liberalism? Try to understand your opponent’s ideas as well as he does. Then pick them apart. Or maybe, even, accept some of what he says as valid and find some common ground. That’s what real liberalism is supposed to be.
Jeff: The real label for what you are is “liberal.” The real problem is that the Left is no longer liberal. It’s forgotten how to be, or even what the word means. That’s the real issue.
If I can be forgiven for linking my own blog, I have written two articles on this very subject:When Did It Happen?
andAre You A Liberal?
Comments, criticisms, etc. are of course welcome.